A new star is born in Sandalwood. Rachita Ram has presented an excellent performance in her first movie that has sentiment, action and comedy. It is a mass entertainer tailor-made for Drashan fans.

Critic's Review

A remake of Telugu movie 'Darling', Bul Bul has all the ingredients of a masala movie with perfect entertainment for the mass. A good show by director MD Sridhar who has aptly changed the script and given it a 'Desi touch' that is sure to keep Darshan fans in good mood. The narration is lively in the first half and takes a serious turn in the second half with a touching climax. Perhaps, the director can think of trimming the movie by at least 20 minutes to make it more enjoyable.

The first half of the movie has a romantic touch with Vijay (Darshan) falling in love with Kaveri (Rachita Ram), a girl from Singapore. There is a turn to the story when Nisha, daughter of a don ( Sharath Lohithashwa), falls in love with him. But Vijay is not interested in her. The don uses his muscle power and forces him to marry his daughter. Vijay narrates him the story of how he has fallen in love with Kaveri. He says she is suffering from memory loss after a car accident in Singapore and that she does not have anyone to look after her. The don develops sympathy for him and leaves him saying he would convince his daughter to forget him.

The second half has a message for good friendship where we find boyhood day friends Amar (Ambareesh), father of Vijay, Ramesha ( Ramesh Bhat), Vishwanath ( Ashok), Apparao ( Tennis Krishna) and others meet at a place to celebrate their friendship after many years. Kaveri, daughter of Vishwanath, also comes to the house of Amar where all friends meet. Then starts the romantic line when Vijay, who was her boyhood friend, tries to win her heart. There are many hiccups. We have Rishi (Sridhar), son of Appa Rao, also trying to win her heart. Even Kaveri's father likes Rishi. Amar too promises Vishwanath that he would get Rishi and Kaveri get married. But the story takes a curious turn with all their plans going topsy turvy. What is it?

Full marks to Darshan for his marvellous and lively performance. Ambareesh steals the show with his graceful performance. Rachita Ram is amazing with her dialogue delivery, body language and excellent expressions. V Harikrishna has given some excellent tunes to the lyrics of Kaviraj. Krishnakumar's cinematography is amazing.

Check with anyone, who is the filmy heir to Rebel Star Ambareesh, pat comes the reply — Darshan. Bulbul, produced by Darshan's family, seems to be an attempt at taking this relationship further ahead. The characters and names of both Darshan and Ambareesh have been etched carefully. For instance, Ambareesh plays Darshan’s father while his character name is Amarnath (the original name of Rebel Star). Every time, the father calls his son junior while the son reciprocates with ‘senior’. Every dialogue of the duo (especially the climax) has been written with the ‘succession’ angle in mind. In fact, even the title which was Ambareesh’s famous one-liner (in Nagara Haavu) is now taken to the next level by Darshan. There are a few scenes where in Ambareesh grooves to foot-tapping music; it’s a treat to watch the veteran, who has just been elected as an MLA. His dialogue delivery, as usual, is amazing though one expected him to repeat his famous one liner - Bulbul Matadakilva.

Story-wise, it is a remake of Prabhas-starrer Telugu flick, Darling. Vijay (Darshan) wants to escape from the clutches of a don (who wants the hero to marry his daughter). So, he weaves a story as to how he met his girl, Kaveri played by Richa Ram, in Switzerland. The narration looks a bit clumsy till the action switches to Switzerland with the exotic locations bringing a fresh feel to the movie. As the story progresses, the hero finds it tough to romance Kaveri as she suffers from a rare syndrome - gold feel syndrome (wait, don’t google as it’s a new syndrome discovered by the story writer). The symptoms are quite simple; her brain acts as a slate and she tends to forget everything once she hits the bed. So, every day, the hero has the arduous task of introducing him to her. Well, the don believes his story. Later, the hero reveals that though he had cooked up the story to escape from his clutches and he is in fact in love with a girl, Kaveri, who was his childhood sweetheart and had been to Switzerland. Post-interval, Kaveri returns from abroad.Then...

Harikrishna’s music is definitely a big plus. Acting-wise, Darshan is good at playing the lover boy. The screenplay has too many catchy one-liners, with Darshan providing the required punch. Though the pair of Darshan and newbie Richi Ram looks out of sync in parts, the latter looks bubbly. On the flipside, the story is a bit clichéd, with too many make-believe scenes.